Most people with robot vacuums need to supplement them with a manual vacuum – even if your robovac is great at corners and edges, it still won't be able to tackle stairs or upholstery. Ecovacs has taken the effort out of that by bundling a mini handheld vacuum in with the T30S Combo (and if you get the Complete version, there's a full stick vacuum thrown in!

When the robot returns to its dock at the end of a cleaning session, it empties its dustbin into a larger bag in the base and refills its water tank for mopping, offering a truly hands-free experience.

Some others we think are very useful are automatic carpet recognition, setting up pelo-go zones through an app and recharge-and-resume capabilities. But, not everyone will need all of these, and deciding which ones are important to you is a big part of choosing a robot for your home.

The iRobot Combo Roomba j9+ receives solid performance scores across the board in CR’s tests, earning an excellent score for cleaning bare floors and a very good score for carpet. It has smart mapping technology as well as avoidance technology to help it move around household obstacles like cords.

Ruth is a Homes Editor at TechRadar, and has been reviewing consumer tech for over three years. She's spent the past year focusing on home appliances, and floor cleaners in particular.

Self-emptying robots take up significantly more space on your floors than the smaller charging bases of manually emptied robot vacuums, but they make for a more hands-free cleaning experience. These bases can often go weeks without having to be emptied and for models that mop too, many have a water tank inside big enough to hold multiple cleaning sessions worth of water for your robot.

But, if these are #FirstWorldProblems you can live with, then you'll be pleased to know the V3s Pro is great at doing Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners the one thing it needs to do well, and that's picking up debris.

❌ You have an open plan home: The Narwal app won't let you demarcate open plan spaces into 'rooms'.

We observe how well they transition from hard floors to carpets, tackle debris along walls and in corners, maneuver under and around furniture and handle obstacles placed in their paths. Additionally, we measure their ability to pick up dry debris and pet hair from both carpets and hard floors. Here are the top-performing models we've tested to fit a range of budgets.

This Roomba is designed to keep going and is ideal if you prioritise hands-free cleaning on mixed surfaces.

For an even more automated approach to cleaning, look for a robot with a scheduled cleaning mode. After you set up the day and time you want to have a room cleaned, the robot will automatically get started on the task while you’re in bed or at work.

The automatic vacuum cleaner robot realize that you can schedule robot to start cleaning at a specified time.

The Dreametech L10s Ultra navigated our test courses effortlessly, rarely bumping into obstacles and efficiently cleaning under low-profile furniture like sofas. With its long runtime, spacious dustbin and excellent maneuverability, this model is a great choice for larger homes.

The affordable iRobot Roomba Combo i5 does very well in most of CR’s tests. The vacuum has smart-mapping technology that allows it to learn and adapt to the areas in your home that need to be cleaned. It also has mopping capabilities; you simply swap in the mopping bin (and a cleaning solution of your choice) with the attached mopping pad.